Court Had Authority to Return Akron Police Officer to Prison for Wife’s Murder

By Dan Trevas The Summit County Prosecuting Attorney had the right to appeal a judgment declaring a former Akron police captain innocent of murdering his wife, and a common pleas court judge had the right to send him back to prison, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled.

The Supreme Court voted 5-1 to deny Douglas Prade a writ of prohibition, which he sought to block a ruling by the Ninth District Court of Appeals that overturned a Summit County Common Pleas Court’s postconviction relief judgment. The Ninth District’s ruling reversed the judgment in Prade’s favor, and resulted in the trial court reinstating Prade’s original conviction and sentence. He was returned to prison to continue to serve his life sentence, which started in 1998.

Prade had challenged the right of the prosecutor to appeal the judgment that released him and the Ninth District’s authority to hear the prosecutor’s appeal. In a per curiam decision, the Supreme Court found that state law gives the prosecutor a right to appeal Prade’s petition for postconviction relief.

Justice William M. O’Neill dissented, writing that through updated DNA testing, Prade discredited the only physical evidence the prosecution had, and Prade is entitled to a new trial.